Project 1001: Heavy Weather by Weather Report

"Weather Report rewrote the rules of jazz with Heavy Weather."

Apr 25, 2025

Jazz fusion has never moved the needle for me. I enjoy it when I hear it, but I very rarely seek it out. Not being a jazz fusion afficionado, I had no exposure to Weather Report before today. I’m glad I was because I really enjoyed Heavy Weather. My favorite track is the opener “Birdland.” It sounds familiar so, I’ve probably heard it before and just didn’t know who it was or maybe heard a cover version. In any event, I think it’s a tremendous track. My rating:

Sacha O’Grady for AllAboutJazz looked back at the album and declared it as, “arguably their finest album ever,” and “it succeeded in breathing new life into a genre that was challenged to compete against the latest pop/rock fads of the time.” O’Grady concluded with:

Heavy Weather was a landmark achievement. Not only did it revitalize a sophisticated musical movement, but it injected it with energy, making it more accessible to a public who was about to be bombarded by a new wave of psychological warfare, otherwise known as disco. What this album did was pump new life into a commercially decaying art form, offering those who required something a bit more challenging than Kiss or the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. As if to prove that quality music didn't have to be plastic in order to be popular.1

According to music journalist and musician John Kruth Weather Report rewrote the rules of jazz with Heavy Weather.

Saxophonist Gary Bartz once said, “Weather Report was such a great, pivotal band. For so many they opened up a whole different way to go. Some bands were meant to be.”2

Richard S. Ginell wrote for AllMusic:

Weather Report's biggest-selling album is that ideal thing, a popular and artistic success…Released just as the jazz-rock movement began to run out of steam, this landmark album proved that there was plenty of creative life left in the idiom.3

In 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Jim Harrington wrote:

Not just their best seller, Heavy Weather was also their critical high-tide mark, hailed as Jazz Album of the Year by virtually every relevant mag, including Playboy.
All that cash-register action and acclaim tends to obscure what a triumph this album is: devastatingly brilliantly played, genre-defining compositions with a sound that suggests the production was a meticulous act of love.4

Enjoy and listen without prejudice.
“And just remember, different people have peculiar tastes”
~ Lou Reed

Cheers!

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Charts

• Peak on Billboard 200 album chart: #30 5
• Singles on Billboard Hot 100 chart: n/a
• RIAA certification: Platinum | September 5, 1991 6

Released on March 1, 1977. Here’s what else was happening:

Pop Culture

• Number one song: “Evergreen (Love Theme From ‘A Star is Born’” by Barbara Streisand7
• Number one album: A Star is Born (Soundtrack) by Barbara Streisand & Kris Kristofferson8
• Number one movie: Rocky by John G. Avildsen9
• Most watched TV programs: Roots, Happy Days, Lavern & Shirley, M*A*S*H, Charlie’s Angels, The Six Million Dollar Man10
• NYT bestseller, fiction: Trinity by Leon Uris11
• NYT bestseller, non-fiction: Roots by Alex Haley12

Some other albums released that month

• Foreigner by Foreigner

• Go for Your Guns by The Isley Brothers

• Dandy in the Underworld by T.Rex

• Islands by The Band

• The Idiot by Iggy Pop

• Let There Be Rock by AC/DC

• Whatever Happened to Slade by Slade

• Commodores by Commodores

• Trans-Europe Express by Kraftwerk

• Harbor by America

• Love Storm by Tavares

• Angel by Ohio Players13

Sport

• Feb 20 19th Daytona 500: Cale Yarborough wins his 2nd Great American Race; Janet Guthrie first female NASCAR Cup Series driver; finishes 12th.
• Feb 25 New Orleans' Pete Maravich sets NBA record for a guard with 68 points in a game.
• Mar 3 World Ladies' Figure Skating Championship in Tokyo won by Linda Fratianne (USA).14

Notable Births

• Feb 24 Floyd Mayweather, American boxer (5 x weight division world champion; record 26 consecutive wins in world title fights (10 by KO; undefeated record 50-0), born in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
• Feb 24 Jason Aldean, American country singer ("Dirt Road Anthem"), born in Macon, Georgia.
• Mar 2 Chris Martin, British rock singer-songwriter, and piano player (Coldplay - "Viva la Vida"), born in Exeter, Devon, England.15

Historical Events

• Feb 24 Carter's Human Rights Foreign Aid Policy: US President Jimmy Carter announced a groundbreaking foreign policy directive that would make human rights considerations a key factor in determining US foreign aid allocations. This marked a significant shift in American diplomatic strategy, emphasizing moral and ethical considerations alongside geopolitical interests.
•Feb 28 First Killer Whale Born in Captivity: A historic moment in marine biology occurred when the first killer whale (orca) was successfully born in captivity at Marineland in Los Angeles, California, marking a significant milestone in marine mammal conservation and research.
• Mar 07 Diplomatic Meeting: Rabin and Carter: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin meets with US President Jimmy Carter, discussing potential diplomatic and strategic cooperation between Israel and the United States.16

Notable Deaths

• Feb 26 (Booker T. Washington) "Bukka" White, American country and Delta blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter ("Shake'Em On Down"; "Parchman Farm Blues"), dies of cancer at 70.
• Feb 26 Sherman Garnes, American rock vocalist (Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers), dies of a heart attack at 36.
• Mar 2 Eugénie Brazier, French chef who was the 1st woman to earn 3 Michelin stars (1933), and the 1st person earn 3 Michelin stars for 2 restaurants, dies at 81.17